


After the End

by orphan_account



Series: Web of Lies [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Clint Barton is Good with Kids, Cooking, Dissociation, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Guardians?, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Flash totally ships himself with Spider-Man, Flashbacks, Gen, I don't understand Doctor Strange's abilities but I'll write them anyway, I'm Bad At Titles, Identity Issues, Identity Reveal, M/M, Missing scene (kinda), Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Prison, Protective Clint Barton, Protective Happy, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Protective Michelle Jones, Protective Ned Leeds, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Wanda Maximoff, Secret Identity, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-06-22 08:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19663258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: We get to see Peter and MJ's reaction to the most insane mid-credit scene in the history of cinema. What about everyone else? Every chapter features a new character (or sometimes multiple). Maybe someday with will have a coherent plot, but right now I just plan on covering everyone's initial reaction because I honestly have no clue how they could fix this mess.Update: A plot has appeared. It's a miracle!





	1. May Parker and Happy Hogan

Happy and May sat next to each other in silence as Peter raced out the door for his ‘date’, if you can even call flinging your girlfriend around New York City at an inhuman speed for a few minutes a date. “We weren’t nearly as subtle as we thought we were, were we?” Happy said after a moment.

“Hey, don’t look at me. You’re the only one that was trying to keep it from him. I just never actually told him directly.” She stood and made her way to the door.

“I just wanted to give him some time before adding another weird thing to his life.” He got up and followed her out. “Lord knows he’s got enough on his plate. Especially now with all that Mysterio shit. Kid needs a break.”

“And he’ll get one. It’s still summer and Fury better have enough sense not to kidnap him again after the hell he just went through.” The two of them made their way to the kitchen. Happy sat down on the couch while May went over to the fridge.

“Fury didn’t kidnap him. He just-” May glared back at him as she pulled out a pitcher of lemonade she made earlier. “Yeah, he kidnapped him.”

“I hate that guy…” she said, pouring both of them a glass before she sat on the couch besides him.

Happy took one of the lemonades. “So… why’d you tell him we aren’t really dating?” May sighed and set her glass on the table.

“You’re still on that? Listen, what we’re doing right now? It’s great. It’s fun. But we’re both adults and have a ton of time ahead of us. No need to commit to anything. And anyway, Peter likes honesty.”

He chuckled. “You certainly have a lot more time than I do. Look at me.”

May looked him up and down thoughtfully. “That blip beard isn’t doing you any favors.”

“Isn’t doing me any…!” He set his drink down next to hers. “Don’t shit on my blip beard. I’m proud of it, okay?” 

May laughed. “Alright, alright. I actually do like it. It gives you a dad look.”

“Hey-”

“That was a compliment. God knows Peter needs someone like you in his life again. I don’t even think he was completely over Ben before Stark…” She took a sip of her drink.

“Um, thanks.. For the drink, I mean.” May smirked at him.

“You haven’t even had a sip yet.” She grabbed the other cup and forced it into his hand. “Drink.”

He did as he was told. The two sat there for a while, not really knowing what to say. Neither really wanted to talk about all the stuff surrounding Peter’s recent trip, but that particular Elephant in the room was too big to comfortably talk around. Instead, they both sat in silence, content with the other’s company. Eventually…

“I should probably go,” Happy said. “I still haven’t given Pepper a complete explanation for the sudden disappearance of one of her planes.” May laughed and they both stood up.

“I can’t thank you enough for what you did for my kid. I can’t even imagine what it was like for him… Suddenly in a foreign country after… whatever the hell Beck made him see. He still hasn’t told me.”

Happy put his nearly empty glass down. “You really don’t need to thank me. Just doing my job. He’s a good kid. Too good, really. You should have seen him with Tony’s tech, May. It was… uncanny.”

“Yeah, well…” May gave him a quick hug before walking him to the door. “I’m sure I’ll get to see him do his thing later.”

Happy was about to open the door before his phone cut him off. “One second.” He checked the caller ID before answering it. “Pepper?”

“News. Now.” She hung up before he could respond. Happy gently pushed May out of the way as he hurried his way back to the TV.

“Turn the TV on!” Under normal circumstances, May would push for answers before following any orders, but now she knew there was no time for such questions. She quickly found the remote and pressed the power button. She was watching the news earlier for updates on the London attack, so they didn’t need to change the channel.

Low quality footage of an injured Mysterio appeared on the screen. Spider-Man’s lower body could be seen in the background. “...commence the drone attack?” a female voice said on the TV. “There will be significant casualties.”

“What the fuck...?” May mumbled in shock.

“Do it. Execute them all,” Peter responded. The sound of gunfire followed.

“What the fuck!?” May and Happy said at the same time.

The screen switched to the regular reporter. “The shocking video was released earlier today-”

“That wasn’t him.” May speaks over the man. “They… someone edited that.” The TV cuts to some other reporter.

“It’s alright.” Happy reassured her. “Look. The video came from The Daily Bugle. No one trusts that damn site.”

“Then why’s it on the news!?” May started pacing.

“I don’t know…” He stared at the screen, still in shock.

“...and who will no doubt go down in history as the greatest superhero of all time.” The man on TV continued.

“C-Call Peter. I need to call Peter.” May pulled out her phone and tried to get to her contacts but her hands were shaking too much.

Mysterio appeared on the television once more. Happy found himself needing to fight his instinct to punch through the screen. “Spider-Man’s real name is P-”

“No…” he mumbled.

“Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker!” The screen cut to Peter’s face as May’s phone fell to the floor.

“No…” May stared in horror as Happy raced to pick up the phone and finished the call. It went straight to voicemail. “Fuck… Fuck…” She continued to mumble to herself as she paced around the living room, unable to form a complete reaction. Happy tried the number again.

“You have reached the voicemail of Pet-” Happy slammed the phone on the ground!

“Fuck!” he yelled.

“Why won’t he answer?” She finally stopped moving and stared down at her now shattered phone.

“Pepper’s probably talking to him. Explains why she hung up so quickly.” May looked at him with tears flooding down her checks.

“What do we do?” He thinks for a second before grabbing her arm with more force than intended.

“We need to get you out of here!” He pulls her out the door.

“Ow!” May pulls her arm away. “What we need to do is find my kid!” Happy looked at the spot where he grabbed her. It was beginning to look slightly red.

“God, May. I’m sorry. It’s just…” He punches the wall. “GOD DAMN IT!” Before May can respond, the door of the apartment next to hers opened.

“Hey, get out of here. I’ll cover for you.” Her neighbor said.

“Mr. Porter?” May asked.

“I just saw the news, but I know Peter. He’s helped my kid with his homework before. Good kid. I don’t know if that whole ‘him being Spider-Man' thing is true, but even if it is, I know he’s no villain. Go find him. I’ll keep the cops busy.” May hugged him.

“Thank you so much!” She grabbed Happy. “Come on!” They ran down the stairs. Neither of them had any idea what to do or how they could possibly fix this, but that man’s support gave May the courage to push through. “Please, God. Let Peter be okay.”

“He will be.” Happy said as they reached his car and got in. “We’ll make sure he is.” He started the car.


	2. Flash Thompson

One could say Flash was pretty happy with his life. They’d be wrong, but nothing would physically stop them from saying the words. Flash himself had made this claim many times, mostly to his adoring fans (not that he looked at his follower count often enough to know exactly how many of those there are.). Speaking of which…

“What’s up, Flash Mob!?” Flash said, live streaming from his bed.”It’s ya boy back with another stream! Now, I know my room isn’t nearly as cool as Europe, but it’s still pretty dope.” He switched to the regular camera to let his viewers get a better view of his current environment (or, as most of his classmates would point out, show off). His room was bigger than most apartments and Flash systematically filled every blank space with something impressive. Whether it be his ultra-realistic Spider-Man suit replica or one of his many expensive TVs, he never ran out of things to entertain his audience with when he no longer had the energy to bare that burden himself.

He flipped the camera back. “I just wanted to get on for a sec to remind you all to send in some questions for our Q&A tonight. It was gonna be at 3, but I decided to hold off til 5.” Flash didn’t feel like clarifying that this was because he didn’t get nearly as many questions as he was expecting. “See? I do nice things for you guys some-” A knocking sound came from the direction of his door..

“Good afternoon,” Flash’s butler said. “Your mother wishes to speak to you.”

“Mother wants to-!” He takes a calming breath and turns back to the phone. “I’ll be back at 5. See ya!” He hurries off wondering if his mother wants to make sure he’s alright after London. He jogged past what must have been hundreds of art pieces no one in the family truly wanted but all agreed looked fancy until he stopped outside his mother’s study to take yet another breath. “Be cool, man.” He calmly walked in.

“Eugene, good of you to finally make it.” She sat in a chair placed in the back left corner of the room reading something about European law. The walls were full of books on everything from financing to fashion through the ages.

“I came as soon as I heard you requested me, Mother.” He tentatively stepped into the room. “I hope I didn’t keep you long.”

“You did, but I’ve come to expect that.” She stood and walked over to him. She towered over him easily. “Now, would you like to explain to me why I had to send a chauffeur to pick you up days ahead of schedule?:

With anyone else, Flash wouldn’t have stood for such a stupid question.  _ ‘What? It’s my fault nature decided to fuck with Europe during the week we happened to be there? That’s bullshit! You expect me to control the weather like I’m Thor or some shit? Fuck off.’  _ In this case, however, he said none of that. “My apologies. I promise this will not happen again. You have my word.”

She stared at him for a moment before going back over to her book. “Dismissed.” She sat down. It’s only now that Flash noticed that she never made eye contact with him once during their conversation, if you can even call it that. He left.

Once back in his room, he collapsed on his bed. It was covered in so many fancy decorative pillows he struggled to get comfortable. Taking them all off at night only to place them all back perfectly every day could get exhausting, but Flash decided long ago that the aesthetic was worth it. Or rather, his parents did and he couldn’t help but agree. He reached for his phone to check for more questions before hesitating.  _ There’s gotta be more, right? _ He unlocked the screen. It turned out that he didn’t properly end his last stream in his hurry to see Mother.

“Two viewers…” He mumbled, staring at the number.  _ I wasn’t even doing anything. Of course I only have two people on stream right now. _ He quickly ends the stream properly before checking his inbox. To his delight, about 20 new messages had been sent during his ten minute absence. “There we go!”

**Spidey4Life613** : How you feelin about that Spider-Man news? I think we both need to change our usernames. Ha

**ReallyJo857** : Isn’t Peter Parker that nerd you keep calling Penis? Your fucking lucky man.

**SimpleT33N** : You see that shit everyone’s saying bout Spidey? 16 yr old kid my ass. Fucking bullshit. Fuck the daily bugle, honestly.

**Noobmaster69** : YOOOOOOOOOOO. You see how Spideys 16 or whatever? Probably your fucking dream. FlashxSpidey is real.

**Bradeldine4914** : _https://_ _ www.thedailybugle.net/recent-news/the-truth-about-spider-man _ live reaction pls.

“The hell…” Flash mumbled before clicking the link. He almost starts reading before he realized this was a perfect streaming opportunity. He walked over to his desk and pulled up the article on his overpriced laptop. Then he went live

“Hey, I know I just said I wouldn’t stream again until five, but I got a bunch of weird ass questions from you guys and one of you sent me a link to the Daily Bugle. The article is called ‘The Truth about Spider-Man’. I know that site’s normally BS, but if the Flash Mob wants me to take a look, I’m here for it.” He sat down in front of his screen and propped the phone up against a textbook.

“Let’s see here… ‘A vigilante known as Spider-Man has been swinging around Queens since before the Blip,’ blah blah blah... ‘The hero Mysterio has shown us his true nature in this video recovered from the London attack.’ Whoa whoa, hold up. I was there. Spidey sent a dude to keep me and three losers from my class safe. The hell is this Mysterio dude talking about…?” He skimmed the page until he found the video in question. “Here. Let’s watch this shit.”

“Welcome back to the Daily Bug-” Flash cut the announcer off by skipping ahead to the part where they actually play the clip.

“I managed to send the Elemental back through the dimensional rift but I don’t think I’m gonna make it off this bridge alive,” Mysterio said. “Spider-Man attacked me for some reason.”

“Okay, now that’s some bullshit!” Flash was pissed now.  _ How dare they talk about my guy like that? _ “I was there! He was helping! He-”

The feed cut back to Spider-Man and an injured Mysterio on the bridge. “Do it,” Spider-Man said. “Execute them all!"

“What the fuck…” He opened a new tab and looked up his stream archives. “I should have stuff with that big sweaty guy saved. I can give it to the cops or something. Prove he’s innocent. This is complete bull-”

“Spider-Man’s real name is P-” Mysterio said from the other tab. Flash froze. “Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.”

Everything froze. The audio kept on playing (something about how Spider-Man’s just some deranged teenager playing hero) but Flash couldn’t pay attention to that anymore. He couldn’t pay attention to anything anymore. He got up and started pacing.

“What.. that doesn’t make any sense.. That…” But it did may sense. It made a lot of sense. “He.. keep on disappearing all the time. Liz’s dad. Quitting band and whatever the fuck else MJ said. Peter and Spider-Man knowing each other. He sent that guy to save us specifically. That thing in DC.” He gasped. “THAT ASSHOLE STOLE MY CAR!” He slapped himself. “No I can’t think about that right now…” He grabbed his laptop and ran. It didn’t matter who Spider-Man was.  _ Who cares if it turns out that dude I’ve been idolizing for years happens to be the same one who keeps upstaging me in class? Well, I care, but that’s not the point. Spidey’s innocent. He saved my life. I’m gonna prove it. _ He raced out the door and towards the police station, once again forgetting to end the live stream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm glad you guys seemed to like the first Chapter. More should be coming soon.  
> By the way, I was listening to music on Spotify and this one song from The Count of Monty Cristo called A Story Told fits Mysterio perfectly. It's legitimately uncanny. Lines that stand out are "We negotiate then fabricate the facts behind the scenes", "History's a story told by the winners of the fight", "We must all pretend our naive friend was caught in his own lies", "A part of me wishes [Peter] didn't have to languish, but I can see it's him or me", and "History's a story told by the people who survive."


	3. Pepper Potts and Morgan Stark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know how to deal with the last name situation with either of these two. I decided not to change Pepper's last name, mainly because I figured Tony wouldn't want to stop calling her Ms. Potts. Morgan is more complicated. I stuck with Morgan Stark because that's what everyone else is using, even though I find it odd that Potts isn't in there at all. If anyone wants me to change either of these, let me know.

Pepper Potts loved her daughter, but sometimes she wished she could just have a day to herself; A day to relax and not worry about anything. That would be lovely. Sadly, Pepper knows that isn’t possible because she’d be far too worried about Morgan to appreciate her mini-vacation. She could always take Morgan back to the lake house, but that wouldn’t do either of them much good. Pepper wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to go back there, but nevertheless couldn’t bring herself to sell it. For now, their penthouse will have to do. _What do I need breaks for, anyway?_

“MIRACULOUS! SIMPLY THE BEST-” Morgan was singing along with the TV in the living room. _Oh right. That._ Pepper smiled despite herself and walked over. 

“This is that Ladybug show, right?” She asked. She had never been as good with kids as Tony was, but always did her best to keep up with her daughter’s latest interests. This show in particular was a rather recent addition to her ever-growing list of obsessions.

“Yeah! Good job, Mommy!” Morgan clapped as if her mom had just answered the final question at an academic decathlon competition. “I really like her. She’s kinda like Spider-Man, but more pretty.”

Pepper laughed. “Don’t let Peter hear you say. Wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings.” She sat down. 

“Oh, are you gonna watch with me?” Morgan sounded so excited Pepper was sure any answer beside ‘Yeah, I love this show,’ would break her heart.

“I don’t see why not.” Pepper, of course, could think of many reasons not to. 1. She personally finds the show to be formulaic and boring, like most kids shows. 2. She had a lot of work to do. 3. Morgan just brought up Peter, reminding her that Happy still hasn’t given her any explanation for taking that plane besides ‘I don’t know, the kid says he’s in the Netherlands… No, I have no idea how the hell he got there.’ 

The most she got after that was a text about how Mysterio is fake and not to trust the news. Again, this came with no explanation. She learned about the London attack from the news, just like almost everyone else. Since Happy’s plane just so happened to be heading in that direction, Pepper assumed that was somehow related to this whole mystery. She decided to let the man tell her about it in his own time, even though her curiosity was currently screaming at her for it.

Despite all those reasons to get up and do anything else, Pepper stayed seated and did her best to pay attention. She put so much effort into doing so that she forgot reason number four: she’s exhausted. After about five minutes, she was already dead asleep. She woke up a minute later when a news alert went off on her phone. Used to sudden awakenings, she only needed a second to orient herself before checking the message.

_Alert: Channel 66 is currently airing a story on Spider-Man._

“Friday, channel 66. Now,” Pepper ordered, already calling Happy. Spider-Man rarely made mainstream news broadcasts, so she immediately knew it was better to alert him as soon as possible..

“Hey! Mommy!” Morgan whined. Pepper barely heard her as the news anchor appeared on the screen.

“-Beck, aka Mysterio, moments before his death.” 

Happy answered the phone. “News. Now.” She hung up and looked down at her daughter. “Go to your room, honey.” Feeling defeated, Morgan did as she was told. Pepper felt bad, but knew she didn’t want Morgan seeing anything about Mysterio.

Speaking of the man, Pepper looked back up to see his face occupying the screen. “Spider-Man attacked me for some reason. He has an army of weaponized drones.”

“Friday, is Peter in the suit? Give me his location.”

“Right away.” 

Now Peter is on screen. “Do it. Execute them all.” Pepper instantly knew this footage was edited despite only partly paying attention.

“Peter Parker is outside Madison Square Garden, He is in the Spider-Man suit,” Friday said.

“Send him a message telling him to get out of there and out of the suit. Get me on the phone with this station.” The news cut to the Daily Bugle. “That site never fact checks. They can’t air this.”

“They want to put you on hold,” Friday informed her.

Pepper was standing now, eyes still locked on the screen. “Any response from Peter?”

“Not yet.”

“Has he-”

“Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.” Peter’s face now filled the screen and Pepper froze. _This is slander! Even if they don’t know him well enough to know he’s innocent, you can’t just ruin a sixteen-year-old’s life without proper investigation. What news station would accuse a teenager of terrorism based off a Daily Bugle story?_ Pepper’s phone went off with several other similar news alerts.

“Holy shit…” she mumbled.

“I’ve taken the liberty of contacting every news station airing this story,” Friday said. “Some have yet to respond, but most say they are not taking calls regarding Peter Parker at this time.”

“Mommy…” Pepper turned around and saw Morgan peaking into the living room.

“I told you to go to your room.” She turned off the TV and knelt in front of her daughter.

“Is Peter in trouble?”

“No, but… Okay, yes, but I’m gonna fix it. I promise.”

Morgan started crying. “I like Spidey. The TV man said he hurt people, but-”

“Don’t worry about that, sweety.” The two of them hugged. “I’m gonna call him right now and-”

“Spider-Man is moving,” Friday cut her off. “Many people are attempting to contact him at the same time.”

She sighed. “Keep me updated on his location.”

“He’s removed his mask and put his phone on airplane mode.”

“What? Why would he…?” She took a breath and looked back at Morgan. “I’ll take care of this. Peter’s going to be fine.”

She started crying. “L-Ladybug cares a lot about people not knowing she’s Ladybug. It’d be bad if people find out.”

Pepper pulled her into another hug. “I know. This is bad, but we can fix it… Friday, call Happy.” She stood and picked her daughter up. Happy answered almost instantly.

“I have May with me in the car. I was about to call you, but we thought you might be talking to the kid.” Pepper almost cried in relief. At least she knew one Parker was safe.

“Peter put his phone on airplane mode. I’ll take care of him. You need to get Ms. Parker somewhere safe.”

“No,” May said, “if Peter put his phone on airplane mode, it’s probably because he’s overwhelmed and freaking out. I need to be there to calm him down. He’s my kid. It’s my job to help him.”

Pepper shook her head despite only Morgan being there to see it. “That won’t work. Don’t you think he’d be happier knowing you’re at least on your way to safety?”

“How about this?” Happy cut in. “I go over to your penthouse and drop May off. You can take her to a secure area while I go get Peter. I’m not as good with him as May is, but it wouldn’t be the first time I had to help him out of a panic.”

“Wait, I just realized,” May said. “What about MJ? MJ was with him.”

“She’s not my top concern right now, but I’ll try to find her, too. That sound like a plan?”

“Yeah, it’s just… where are we going? What do we do after this?” Two very good questions, ones Pepper didn’t have answers to. Unless…

“My ETA is five minutes.”

Pepper closed her eyes as Morgan snuggled further into her neck. “We’re going to the lake house. We’ll figure everything else out once everyone’s safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter in the bag. I'm thinking my next chapter will be following up on Peter and MJ, focusing more on MJ, but I'm not sure if I want to get back to them so soon. It's either them or Ned.  
> I'm hoping people like my portrayal of Pepper here. As much as I love her, I don't know if I did a good job with her here or not. Please let me know if you have a problem with it or anything else in my work.


	4. Michelle Jones and Peter Parker

As the news story about Spider-Man somehow being a mass murderer played outside Madison Square Garden, MJ noticed about 4 different types of reactions around her. Type ones simply ran away, deciding it was better to just not get involved in the madness that was sure to break out soon. This was mostly the parents trying to get kids out of this “killer’s” line of sight. Type twos and threes both pulled out their phones. While the twos called 911, the much larger population of threes started recording. Type four was the largest. Every single one of them froze. This made sense, of course. In their minds, this was by far the worst possible place to be when the news hit. Their brains must have been going crazy.

Peter fit very nicely into type four, for both a very similar and very different reason. MJ, like always, didn’t fit into any sort of group, instead focusing all her attention on making Peter get the fuck out of there while he still could. “Hey!” She yelled. “Come on! Go!” He didn’t seem to hear her. He just stared at the screen still showing his face in the top right corner. “Listen to me!”

“Hey!” a type three said. “Why are you trying to help him?” MJ flipped him off and tried to throw a small rock at Peter. No reaction.

“I saw her swing around with him earlier,” another joined in. “She’s probably in on it.”

“There’s also this girl her trying to help him escape,” a type two reported to the 911 operator. “I think she’s a with him.” This somehow was what finally got Peter to react. He jumped down and grabbed MJ. Before she could say anything, he swung off.

Eventually they found themselves on a rooftop far from the noise. He put her down before ripping off his mask and more or less collapsing on his hands and knees hyperventilating. She knelt in front of him. “Peter..” No response. “W-What do you need? Are you dissociating? Is this a panic attack?” _Am I having a panic attack?_ She shook his shoulder. No response. “Peter, please…” It was only now that MJ noticed Peter’s phone in his right hand and the chaos coming from it. It was going crazy with 28 missed calls and 46 new messages. Was the entire fucking school calling him? How did MJ not hear it before? Was she dissociating too? Would not hearing a sound even count as dissociating? Midtown needs a better psychology teacher.

“Is this bothering you, Peter?” No response. MJ heard it’s good to repeat someone’s name when they’re having a panic attack or PTSD flashback. Was this a PTSD flashback? Possibly. “Here, let me…” She reached over and put his phone on airplane mode. “There. Now it’s just us. Just focus on me, Peter. Please.” She found herself getting more desperate. She could barely take care of her own mental health. How the hell was she supposed to help someone else?

“Hey!” MJ fliched at the new voice. She looked up to see a tall man standing by the roof entrance. “Where did you kids…?” He noticed Peter. “Holy shit!” He pulled out his phone.

“No!” MJ screamed as she ran over. “Don’t call the police, you asshole!”

“Excuse me if I don’t want a criminal hiding on top of my apartment building.” He dialed the number. She barely registered Peter’s breathing getting worse.

“What, you’re just going to believe everything that conspiracy site says? You should fact check before calling the cops on a teenager that's currently having a panic attack.”

“He’s obviously on the run. If he was innocent, he’d have nothing to hide.” He pressed call. MJ instinctively reached to force the phone away, but someone grabbed her hand. Peter stood next to her, eyes red and broken. MJ was taken aback. She knew he was hurting, but seeing his face brought the horrors of what just happened to a whole new level.

The stranger must have felt similarly. He was silent before saying, “Hey, operator. It was a false alarm… I’m sorry I wasted your time… Yeah, I’ll be more careful next time. Thank you.” He hung up. Peter leaned against the wall next to the door and slid back to the ground. MJ knelt down in front of him.

“Peter… Can you hear me?”

He nodded. “M-May….” He voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Don’t think about her right now. I’m sure she’s fine. Focus on your breathing. Match mine.” They sat together for what felt like an eternity before his breathing returned to normal.

“Listen, kids,” the man said. “I have children home. I can’t let a fugitive stay here.”

“Don’t call him that!”

“Right, sorry.” He approached them nervously. “I’ll go talk to my husband and see what we can do to help, but I refuse to do anything that will put my kids in danger.”

“That’s fair,” Peter spoke up. “Thank you.” The man nodded before going back inside the building. MJ moved to sit against the wall too. She opened her mouth to speak before noticing the fact that Peter was still shaking. Instead of talking, she took his hand and the two of them sat in silence.

About ten minutes later, the man from before came back carrying a bag. A shorter, more friendly looking man came with him. The new person knelt in front of them. “Hello. My name’s Charlie. My husband’s name is Adam.

Adam lightly hit Charlie’s shoulder. “Don’t give them our names.”

“Jesus christ, honey.” Charlie looked up at him. “If you honestly believe this toddler that looks like the human embodiment of a marshmallow tried to kill half of London, we’re gonna need to get your brain checked.” Peter smiled despite himself. “Don’t worry, kiddos. He’s just protective. We’ve got two daughters downstairs and he doesn’t want any trouble.”

“Speaking of which…” He handed Charlie the bag.

“Thanks, honey.” He pulled out a plain, semi-girly purple shirt, sweatpants, a white hat and black vans. “Since we only have girls and we’re way bigger than you, we had limited options, but we figured you’d better get out of that suit.”

“I don’t think his top concern right now is stereotypical gender roles.” MJ took the items and handed them to Peter.

“Thank you, sir” Peter took them and stood up. “I…I don’t know where to…”

Adam opened the roof door. “We’ll let you stay at our place for an hour max. The kids are playing video games in their room and neither of them like strangers, so hopefully they won’t even have to know you were ever here.” Peter stared in shock until MJ grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. The two men led them to their apartment. It was small and looked like it could barely fit two people, let alone four. Charlie lead Peter to the bathroom while MJ sat on the couch.

“If you were just gonna let us inside, what was the bag for?”

“Oh.” Adam sat next to her and handed the bag over. “We also had other things. We didn’t exactly know what your plan was, but Char wanted to prepare for the worst. There’s a couple more outfits, a blanket, and a couple twenties. Char wanted to give you more but…”

“You’re not so sure Peter’s innocent.” Her voice was cold.

“I mean.. Yes, but that’s not what I meant. It’s just… Do you have any idea how much trouble we’d get into if the police found out we were helping you. Your friend in there just became the most wanted kid in New York. What if someone saw him swing onto the roof? What happens to us then? What if-” Charlie had apparently returned in the middle of his rambling and hit him lightly on the head with a magazine. “What was that for?”

“You’re scaring the poor girl.” He sat on the couch on the other side of her. “Sorry about him. He’s always been a total downer.”

“He wasn’t scaring me…” MJ mumbled as she stuffed the clothes back into the bag. “We don’t need this. I’m not about to let Peter become homeless.” 

Charlie looked at her sadly. “I don’t know what choice you have, sweetie. Life on the run is hard. It won’t be long, I hope. Just until some lawyer decides they want some attention and volunteers to take the case for free as a publicity stunt. Or maybe someone will start a Kickstarter thingy.”

Peter emerged from the bathroom in his ill-fitting clothes before curling up in a nearby chair. “Peter?” MJ said softly before walking over. “What do you want to do?” He continued to stare at the ground. “Peter-”

“Is this…” he started. “Is this real?” She paused for a second before pulling him up into a hug. “Is that a yes?”

“I wish it wasn’t.” They stood like that until Adam cleared his throat. 

“Do either of you want some food?” He asked. “So you can rest up before leaving.” Charlie was already on his way to their poor excuse of a kitchen. Peter shook his head.

“By that he means yes,” MJ said. “Knowing this loser, he hasn’t had anything to eat since this morning.”

“On it!” Charlie got to work. “Either of you two vegetarian? Allergies?”

“Unless you’re putting perfume in the food, I think we’re good.” She smirked.

“Oh, I don’t actually…” Peter awkwardly moved to the couch.

“I know you don’t, you dork.” She sat next to him. “So… I’m not about to let you become homeless just because Beck’s a lying asshole. What’s the plan?

“... I need to know if May’s okay. I-I think she was with Happy, so she’s probably fine, but I need to make sure. If she gets in trouble because of me, I…” He looked down, obviously fighting off tears.

“Peter, look at me.” He didn’t move. “I’m serious… Fine, just listen okay. You know none of this was your fault, right?” No response. “You were literally gaslighted, Peter.”

“I know,” he mumbled. “At least, I think I know.”

“I’ll take that for now, but we’re totally getting you a therapist later.” She took his hand. “Where’s your phone? Or, do you not want to open up that wormhole just yet?”

“I-I can’t. Not right now. It’ll make it too real.” MJ used her available hand to pull out her own phone. _Thank god I don’t have social media or my phone would be a similar hellscape._ She quickly cleared her notifications ( _50 new messages holy shit_ ) and handed it to him. “Call whoever you want.”

“Thank you... For everything.” He took it and quickly put in a number.

“No need.” She let go of his hand and scooted away to give him some more privacy. He held the phone to his ear for a few seconds before hanging up and dropping it on the couch. He looked terrified.

“It went straight to voicemail.”

“She’s probably getting a lot of calls, too.”

He closed his eyes and took a second to control his breathing. “Happy… She might still be with Happy.” He grabbed the phone again and put in his number.  _ Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly longer chapter FTW! Of course, my chapters are normally pretty sort, but I still count this as a win. Next up should be Ned.


	5. Ned Leeds and Betty Brant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a mistake at the end of the last chapter. I somehow forgot that May's phone was broken in the first chapter and Peter therefore would have no way to contact her. I slightly edited the end of that chapter. I'll try not to make stupid continuity mistakes like that again.

Ned could never understand why so many people robbed themselves of the enjoyment of gaming. To him, nothing felt better than leaving your boring world behind for a few hours (possibly too many if he’s being honest) and just having fun. Not that this gaming session had much to do with escaping boredom. It was more of a ‘I just almost died three different times within the span of a single week and need to step away for a bit’ kind of binge.

Between the sounds of gunfire and enemies screaming, he heard a knock at his door. His parents walked in, not even giving him time to take his headphones off and come back to reality. They both sat on his bed.

“Ned, there’s something important we need to tell you,” his mom said.

“Can it wait?” Ned gestured to his game. “I’m in the middle of someth-”

“It’s about your friend, Peter.” That got his attention. He turned his chair around to face them.

“We…” His dad took a deep breath. “We were just watching the news and… Listen, I know this will be hard to hear, but I need you to be calm and rational. Okay?” Ned nodded, more worried than ever.

“A story just aired about the attack in London, and… apparently there was more than one dangerous threat there that when it happened.”

His mom reached forward and grabbed his hand comfortingly “Spider-Man was the one behind all those drones. The ones that attacked you and your friends.”

Ned’s face went white. “W-Wait, hold on.” His head was spinning. “That’s not true. Like, at all. He sent a guy to save us.” _And he’s also my best friend. What the hell’s going on?_

“We know you think that, but that’s not what really happened.”

“I know that this is hard for you to hear,” his dad cut in, “but we know what really happened. Spider-Man has been lying to all of us, you especially.”

“No, he hasn’t!” Ned stood up. “He saved everyone. Where are you getting this from?”

“We were just watching the news.” His dad stood as well and gently pushed him back into his chair. “They had proof. He told the drones to kill everyone. I can show you the footage if that will help you come to terms with it.”

“I don’t want the clip. That can be edited. I edit things all the time. I can get you ‘evidence’ of anyone doing anything.” His face has gone from white to red. _This is totally fake. Peter’s probably freaking out somewhere. I need to call him._

“Listen…” His mom stepped forward and pet his head. “I know you won’t believe us, and that’s fine. We know you’ve been brainwashed.”

His eyes widened. “Brainwashed?”

She sighed. “You’re friend’s probably a big fan of Spider-Man, right? Always telling you good things about him?”

“Um… No?” _Lie lie lie._ “Peter doesn’t even like Spider-Man. A-Always says he does more harm than good.” _Why is she even bringing him up? Unless…_

“The news said one other thing about Spider-Man.” _Oh no._ “He’s secretly Peter.”

Without thinking, Ned got up and ran out of the room. “Ned!” his mom yelled after him. He didn’t stop running until he was out of the house and in some random alley nearby. He pulled out his phone. It only mildly surprised to see 20 missed calls and 72 new messages. _I’m never putting my phone on silence again._ He went to click Peter’s contact when Betty called him. He answered.

“Oh thank god!” She said. “I’ve been going between calling you, MJ and Peter for the past hour. Where are you?”

“I’m outside my house. What’s going on?”

“Well, apparently Peter’s Spider-Man. At first I was really confused ‘cause I was pretty sure he’s the least fit guy in our class and also the world's biggest pacifist, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. Like, remember when-”

“Yeah, I already knew before this.” He looked around before moving further into the alley. He put his phone on speaker and went to his messages.

“You did?” She sounded offended. “Well, you are best friends, so I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I still don’t think he did the drone thing. Or the killing Mysterio thing. I mean, he sent that guy to protect us. Why would he do that if he was bad? Midtown is pretty split right now, but-”

“Wait,” Ned cut her off. He scrolled through his messages and found a bunch of unknown numbers asking where Peter was. “How did so many people get my number?”

“Oh, I was just about to say. I found all the people from our school defending him online and we’re now forming the Peter Parker Defense Force. We have about twenty members right now, but we’re growing. Right now our goal is to find Peter and make sure he’s not, like, shot by police officers or anything. I gave them Peter, MJ, and your numbers to help track you guys down. I thought you might know where he is, but I guess not. They probably gave your numbers to other people too. Hope you don’t mind.”

“You gave Peter’s number away to strangers!?” He put his phone off speaker and left the alley. “He’s probably freaking out right now and a bunch of people are spamming his phone. That’s not good.” _I need to find him._

“To be fair, they’re all from Midtown, but yeah. I’m starting to think that wasn’t the best idea, but I thought it made sense at the time. All of our calls have been going straight to voicemail, so I think he turned his phone off or something.” _Or his phone was taken away by cops._

“What about MJ?”

“No luck with her either, but I think she keeps her phone on silent. I’m thinking about telling everyone to give up on the messaging and focus on campaigning. Don’t want to kill their batteries. Flash is already-”

Ned abruptly stopped walking. “ _Flash_ is part of the Peter Parker… whatever you called it?”

“Peter Parker Defense Force, or P2DF. But no, not officially. He was livestreaming when the news hit and is apparently at the police station right now trying to show them the video of that guy that helped us. I have no idea how he’s doing, but I guess something good came from his ego.”

“Who’s actually part of this, then?”

“Well, you are I hope. Then there's me, Jason, Yasmin, Abe, and.. Wait! I just remembered. Liz called me!”

“Liz? Like, our friend Liz? When?”

“Thirty minutes ago, I think. Apparently her mom didn’t die in the blip but she did, so her mom moved back here to be near Liz’s dad. Now that Liz is back, they’re still living here but she didn’t want to talk to any of us cause, you know, bad memories.”

“What’d she say?”

“Not much. Just asked if I knew where he was and if he was arrested or something. We didn’t talk long which, I get it, but I wanted to talk more. I haven’t seen her in so long and we used to be best friends. I miss her.” _So in other words, we have no idea what side she’s on._ “Anyway, are you an official P2DF member?”

“Yeah, of course I am.”

“Awesome. I’m gonna hang up so I can add you to the group chat.”

“Tell everyone to stop trying to call Peter. He doesn’t answer calls from unknown numbers anyway.”

“Right. I think they were talking about raising money to get him a lawyer. We’ll get on that. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to the library so I can track his phone.”

“Oh, smart! This is why we need you! Okay, I’ll talk to you soon. Call me if you find him. Bye!” She hung up. Ned started walking faster, determined to find his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked his chapter. I'm debating between different characters I could do next, or more specifically I'm trying to figure out if I want to have certain characters react separately or together. We shall see.


	6. Clint Barton and Wanda Maximoff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nobody:  
> Me: *Writes a chapter for two characters no one asked*
> 
> Absolutely no one:  
> Me: *Makes it the second longest chapter so far*
> 
> Enjoy :)

Ever since the revival of everyone dusted during the decimation (as Clint stubbornly continued to call it), the Bartons had only had one true constant: a monthly visit from Wanda Maximoff. Her determination to spend at least three days at their farm every four weeks was a seemingly unstoppable force. Her airplane is delayed due to weather? Convince Pepper to let her use a Stark Jet. Numerous calls from Nick Fury? Airplane mode exists for a reason (not this one but still). Clint tells her some of Laura’s family is visiting? Wanda comes anyway and offers to just stay in the room they have designated to her. 

She would sometimes feel guilty, but Clint always assured her that it was no problem and he understood the need to get away. That was a complete lie, but he nevertheless took no issue with her behavior. Laura tried to explain many times. “She lives a busy life now that there are less Avengers running around. With that plus Vision, of course she’d want some normalcy.” That only functioned to confuse him further. To him, Wanda’s life running around superheroing was normal. The man spent countless nights debating between going back to that and staying with his family. He didn’t belong here, especially after all the things he did when they were… gone.

In the end, Clint knew that his family needed him with them. He knew Wanda wouldn’t feel comfortable coming here if he left. A very, very small, almost nonexistent part of his stubborn brain also knew that he needed this just as much as they did. He just didn’t like admitting it. Even so, the cycle continued. Early in the morning, Wanda had shown up at his doorstep. They hugged before he escorted her to the kitchen where Laura was making omelettes. Hours later, the three of them sat on the couch exchanging stories while the kids played in their rooms.

“How are things with Sam and Bucky?” Laura asked.

“I don’t think they’ve ever had a conversation together that didn’t end with one trying to show the other up.” Wanda sighed. 

Clink laughed “I believe the phrase you’re looking for is a di-” 

Laura hit his arm. “If you say what I think you’re about to say, you’re sleeping in the shed tonight.”

“Then I guess I don’t have to say it.” He took a sip of his water. “Still, I’m not surprised. They didn’t even stop when we were in literal jail.”

“Even being on the run couldn't end it.” Wanda shivered. He couldn’t tell if she did so jokingly or not. Probably both.

“So…” Laura eyed both of them. “They’re totally secretly in love, right?”

Clint choked on his drink. “What?”

“Oh, of course.” Wanda said.

“No. Nope.” He shook his head. “We are not talking about this again.”

“You’re only saying that because you don’t have to live with them.”

Laura nodded. “I’ve only met them a handful of times and I can still feel the unresolved sexual tension.”

“I want to take a shower just talking about it.”

“Alright, I’m out.” Clint stood up. “You ladies keep talking about this by yourselves. I’m gonna do… anything else.” He was about to step into the hallway when he almost ran into Lila. “Woah! Sorry.” He almost walked straight past her until he saw her worried expression. “What’s up?”

“Um, can we…?” She nodded in the direction of the living room.

“Yeah.” He comfortingly wrapped his arm around her and walked her back over to the couch.

“I’m sorry, should I leave for this?” Wanda asked.

Lila sat down with her father, his arm still around her shoulders. “It’s fine. Just.. Do you guys remember that one random teenage boy at Stark’s funeral?”

Clint was taken aback by the question but tried not to show it. “Which one? I remember at least two.”

“The one that didn’t talk to anyone. Was guided around by that other lady. Didn’t even really seem… there.”  _ Right. Spider-Man _ . Clint didn’t know much about the kid. He’s got spider powers. Tony really liked him. He fought on Titan and helped protect the gauntlet after he gave it to King T’Challa. That’s it, really.

He remembered wanting to talk to the kid at Tony’s funeral. The boy looked so lost and he couldn’t help but want to give him a hug. Even so, he knew he had the right to grieve and funerals weren’t the best place to make friends new friends. He also distinctly remembers Fury going over to speak to him before Steve stopped him.  _ What was his real name again? _

“Was his name Peter Parker?” Lila asked.

This time, he couldn’t hide his surprise. “Um, yeah. That sounds about right.” Clint never told them about Peter being Spider-Man. He figured the kid was probably already upset all the Avengers knew. Best to keep that number as low as possible.

“Right. I thought I recognised his face.”

“Where did you recently see his face, exactly?” Wanda asked. She looked more nervous than he expected. As far as he knew, she hasn’t had much interaction with the kid either.

“The news.” All three adults gave each other worried glances. “It… It wasn’t good news.” 

“What was it?”

“Um… so, apparently… he’s Spider-Man.”

Clint flinched at that and took his arm off her. “You heard that on the news?” Lila nodded.

“Wait, you already knew that!?” Laura asked.

“Oh, yeah, but didn’t think I should tell that to other people. Thought he wanted it to be a secret.”  _ So much for that, apparently _ .

“How did this get leaked?” Wanda voice had a different sound to it than normal. Clint couldn’t quite place what it was.

“Apparently that new Mysterio guy left this video after he died saying Spider-Man attacked him or something.” 

Wanda stood up “He wouldn’t do that.”  _ Why is she so protective? _ She picked up the remote and turned on the TV. “What channel?”

Lila shrugged. “Any of them, I guess.” Wanda picked a random news station.

“-these were his true colors?” One reported said to another on the screen.

“Well, for starters, he picked a Spider theme. That really should have been our first clue.” Laughter could be heard in the background. “Really, though, there have been signs from the beginning. First of all, the fact that he had a secret identity is suspicious to begin with. Who would do that if they had nothing to hide? Plus, him running around saving cats and such was probably just an image thing. London was the first time we’ve seen him face an Avengers level threat separate from other Avengers, and he goes rouge. I don’t think we should be suprised. He only fought the good fight when he had to. Now, when he thought no one would find out, he revealed his true nature and killed Earth’s newest great hero in the process.”

Laura grabbed the remote and turned it off. Wanda took out her phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for a while before going to voicemail. “Great…”

“Okay, do you know more about him than I do?” Clint got up and walked over to her, afraid she might take off.

“I know he’s a good kid.” She snapped.

“Who’d you call?” Laura moved to sit closer to her daughter.

“Pepper, but she didn’t answer. I don’t know Peter’s number.”

Clint pulled out his own phone and send Pepper a message. ‘What’s going on with the Spider-Man thing?’ “There. She’ll reply when she can.”

“No, we need to do something now.” Wanda insisted.

“Why are you so invested in this?”

“Because…” She took a breath and turned away from him. “You should care, too. He did a lot to help us beat Thanos. He’s our ally and we need to look out for each other.”

He grabbed her shoulder. “I care, don’t worry about that. You’re just going all mother bear. It’s kinda cute, actually.” His phone went off before she could respond. He looked at the message.

‘If you want to help, meet us at the lake house. Peter is innocent. Mysterio is lying.’ He showed it to her. Laura stood up and grabbed the phone once Wanda was done reading.

“I’m going.” Wanda took off down the hallway.

Laura took her husband’s hand.“So, should I go book you two a flight to New York?” she asked.

Clint looked shocked. “You’re gonna let me go just like that?”

She laughed. “Let you go? No one’s keeping you locked up here. Plus, I think Wanda needs someone to hold her back.” There was no doubt in either of their minds that she planned on going no matter what. He had no idea why she cared so much about the kid, but it was starting to rub off on him as well. He just imagined one of his kids helping people, only to get accused of something they didn’t do. He was never that close with Stark, but doing nothing felt like an insult to the man’s memory.

He looked back at Lila. She seemed confused and anxious. He knelt in front of her. “If I go help, are you gonna be mad at me?” 

“No, it’s okay. Be back soon?”

“Of course, pumpkin.” He kissed her forehead and stood up. “I’m gonna talk to the boys.” He didn’t wait for a response before going down the hallway. He stopped at a hanging picture of Natasha. He smiled. Even in the end, after everything he did, she believed in him. She’d probably want him to help out a fellow spider, so that’s exactly what he’s gonna do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hope you guys liked this. As some of you may have noticed, I updated the summary to confirm the existence of a plot now! I have an idea of where the story's gonna go for once in my life. My plan right now is to finish up all the reactions I have planned and then start a new story in the series continuing on. This more or less has become me setting up the key players.  
> I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support. This has gotten a lot more love than I expected. I eagerly look forward to every comment.


	7. Liz Toomes

Things had been strange after Liz came back from the dead. For starters, she lived in New York again. That had certainly been a hard pill to swallow after reappearing in a living room suddenly occupied by a group of college kids. She had considered contacting her old friends more than a hundred times over the months since then. She missed Betty and her fellow decathlon team members. Even so, visiting them would likely mean seeing Peter, the guy that stood her up the night her dad was thrown in prison. She wasn’t necessarily mad at Peter. As a matter of fact, she had a theory that Peter’s secret superpower was making it impossible to stay angry with him for more than ten seconds. Despite that, she still had no interest in seeing his face again. Ever.

… Okay, maybe she was mad at him a little bit. Just a bit. A very tiny bit. It’s just… she knew he had trouble with social situations. She’d thought for the longest time that he had social anxiety and more or less had her suspicions were confirmed when he noped out of both large gatherings of people he was supposed to attend. This idea made a lot more sense than Peter just being an asshole. He’s not an asshole. Liz would never think of him as an asshole or call him such out loud under any circumstances. Why would she? He was a nice guy…

She shook those thoughts out of her head as she made her way to her new living room, one thankfully not full of college students. Instead, she found her mom reading a magazine. She sat next to her. “So, what’s for lunch?”

Her mom looked up. “Are you offering to make something, or just trying to push the decision making onto me?”

Liz shrugged. “Whatever you decide…” 

“Well, I decide that we should just eat those leftovers from last night.”

She pouted before getting up and walking over to the fridge. She pulled out some pasta. “Do you want me to heat some up for you?”

“No, I’m-” Her phone went off. “Hold on…” Liz took out a spoon and shoveled some noodles onto a paper plate. “Sweetie come over here.”

“Give me a second.” She put the food in the microwave, covered it with a paper towel, put one minute on the time, and pressed start before talking back over.

Her mom picked up the remote. “I got a message from Debbie, someone from work, and she said that I need to turn on the news and watch with you.” She turned it on and started looking for the right channel.

“With me?” 

They sat down next to each other as two reporters appeared on screen. “-must say, I used the be a huge Spider-Man fan,” the woman said. “I bought my kids all sorts of Spidey-inspired things. Well, at the very least my family’s gonna be getting a nice bonfire out of this.” They could hear laughter in the background.  _ What happened? Was Spider-Man caught doing something bad? _

Liz had very mixed feelings about the masked vigilante. Most of the negatives were a combination of the nature of his status as a masked vigilante and the fact that he’s the reason her dad ended up in prison. On the other hand, he saved her life directly at the Washington Monument. She also used to have a crush on him, but that was neither here nor there. The point was, she didn’t find herself very surprised to find out this person running around in a mask could, in fact, be a criminal. Even so, she was a little disappointed.

“Okay,” the male reporter said, “as much as I do find Mysterio’s claims to be credible, I feel the need to play devil’s advocate here. You are aware we are talking about a teenager here, right? I think you should at least wait for a trial to burn everything.”

“I would agree, but we have video evidence of this Peter Parker ordering drones to kill people right before he supposedly kills Mysterio.” At the mention of his name, an image of Peter fills the top right corner of the screen.

Liz’s mom covered her mouth while Liz herself didn’t react at all. At least, not on the outside. Her brain more or less exploded with sudden realizations. 

_ Peter knows Spider-Man. ---- Peter is Spider-Man. _

_ Peter wasn’t at the Washington Monument. ---- Spider-Man was at the Washington Monument. _

_ Peter wasn’t at my party. ---- Spider-Man was spotted across town that night. _

_ Peter left the dance. ---- Spider-Man got my dad arrested. _

_ Spider-Man got my dad arrested ---- My dad tried to kill Spider-Man. _

Liz broke out of her thoughts at her mom’s snapping fingers. “Liz!” She jumped.

“Sorry, Mom.” She looked back at the screen, only to find it blank.  _ How long was I gone? _

“You alright, sweetie? Do you want to be alone?” Liz nodded. As her mom got up and left, she looked up at a picture of her and her dad. Only two thoughts remained.

_ My dad tried to kill Peter. ---- Peter got my dad arrested. _

Her mixed feelings had become a lot more mixed. How was one supposed to react to both of these suddenly true statements at once? Just how bad was her dad? Did Peter only date her to get closer to her father? _Well, no, he was clearly terrified._ _Or was he? Is he just a really good actor?_

She pulled out her phone and googled Peter Parker, spending the next few minutes reading up on what he’d apparently done as Spider-Man. She watched the clip of Mysterio revealing his identity as well as Peter’s drone strike at least ten times.

_ This doesn’t feel right.  _ She knew Peter. She’s seen Peter tear up while dissecting animals in biology. Peter wasn’t a killer.

Unless he’s a very good actor. Maybe.

Her thoughts switched from one puzzle to another. She only knew two things about her dad’s life of crime. 1. He apparently did crimes. Very bad crimes that landed him in jail for a long time. 2. Many people have asked him to reveal Spider-Man’s true identity. He refused very time, but never claimed not to have the information.

_ He knew Spider-Man’s identity. ---- He tried to kill Peter. _

No, she had no way of knowing that for sure, just as she had no way of knowing if Peter really tried to kill half of London. With no information to go off of, she came up with a test for both of them. The rules were simple.

Peter: If he turns himself in to the authorities within twenty-four hours and lets a jury decided his fate, he’s okay until the verdict comes in. If he runs away, he’s guilty and she’ll help the police find him if she can.

Dad: If he is able to tell her his identity without her giving it away, he knew it when he tried to kill Spider-Man. That makes him bad. If he doesn’t know it and is claiming to for some other reason, he’s good.

_ Okay, let’s get to investigating. _ She looked back at her phone and went to Betty’s contact. She’d seen on her instagram that she was dating Ned. She didn’t have Ned’s number, so this will have to do. It wasn’t until she hit send that she realized she’d call her ex-best friend for the first time in years to ask about her ex-boyfriend. For some reason, the thought didn’t make her feel as bad as it should have.

“Liz? Is that you!?” Betty said when she picked up. “Oh my god! How are you?”  
“Um, I’m okay, you?” Liz didn’t want to be rude, so she tried to make the conversation flow as normally as possible.

“Good! I’m starting this club online where… Oh, are you calling about Peter?” She sounded disappointed.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I promise we can hang out later. This is kinda important.”

“How can we hang out? You’re in Oregon.”  
Liz took an annoyed breath and explain moving after the blip before asking, “Do you know what’s going on with Peter?”

“That’s actually what I was trying to tell you before. I’m getting together a group of people to find him.”

“So the police haven’t found him yet?”

“Oh, I hope not. No one I’ve talked to has him either. Want me to text you any news?”

Liz said yes and thank you before they both hung up and she moved forward with the second plan. She put on her shoes and walked out the door. Visiting hours at her dad’s prison ended in less than 90 minutes, so she had to hurry. Her pasta was left abandoned in the microwave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how clear I made it in the end, but this and the next chapter are kinda a part one and part two sort of thing. Next up is the Vulture. Thank you for all the comments and kudos!


	8. Adrian Toomes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter. I actually meant to have this done by yesterday morning, but I randomly got really tired and didn't wanna write like that. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Toomes had never been particularly fond of jail. There were lots of things to dislike about it. The lack of privacy upset him greatly. His fellow prisoners constantly annoyed him. The guards’ lack of respect towards those under their watch often left him frustrated. Even so, nothing upset the man more than how long it took information from the outside world to reach him.

More than five years ago, he watched as people disintegrated into dust around him. The surviving guard ran away, leaving the prisoners in their panic. It took the prison a whole two days to send a new person down to bring everyone food. It was only then that Toomes learned that this happened on a global scale. It took him even longer to find out his daughter was one of the casualties.

Things weren’t much different when, many years later, all those people came back to life. He didn’t remember much of what happened afterwards. The chaos of the guards both having to deal with thirty-three percent more prisoners than normal and getting the revived guards to calm down left him feeling lightheaded. His thoughts were quite preoccupied. _Where is Liz? Did she come back too? Oh god, is she alright? She needs to be alright._

His wife came by the next day to assure him that yes, Liz was alive, and yes, she’s on her way back to New York. This was also when he learned of the death of Avengers Iron Man and Black Widow. The news upset Toomes, which surprised him. He’d always hated Stark, and still did, but something about knowing that he died in the process of saving his daughter made him put all that aside for a short while.

He really, truly hoped things would be more peaceful after that. His daughter was back and could actually visit from time to time. That made it a little bit worth the hardship, right? Maybe. He kind of liked being able to get news from his daughter, whether it be about her personal life or just updates on what’s happening throughout the world. Nethertheless, there were still times where he wished for access to other sources. For instance, the ability to just sit back and watch the news would have given him time to prepare for Liz’s first question during one very unusual visit.

“You know Spider-Man’s real identity, right?” The question threw him off. Not because he hadn’t been asked this before. As a matter of fact, that was a rather popular talking point with many newbies. He just never expected his daughter to bring it up.

“What’s with this all the sudden?” He smiled to lighten the mood. “I didn’t think you’d care. Is this a revenge thing? I’m flattered, but-”

“I know who he is. I want to know if you know.” She kept he expression blank, the same way she would during decathlon competitions.

“You know who he is?” He smirked. “Then you tell me.” This was the first time someone pretended to know in order to trick him into talking about it. He was proud his daughter was the first to think of it.

“I asked first.” She sat up in her chair in a comically lame attempt to look intimidating.

He laughed. “Listen, Gumdrop. You aren’t a detective or whatever you’re tryin’ to be. I’m not gonna tell you anything just like I haven’t told anyone else. Sorry.”

She sighed and relaxed her shoulders. “I know. I shouldn’t be doing this. I just… I need to make sure you know, cause if you do…” She looked away.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” She nodded. “Then just tell me what’s goin’ on.”

“He’s all over the news. People are claiming that he killed Mysterio. Have you heard of him yet?”

“Yeah, my cellmate’s wife told him all about London yesterday. Spider-Man _killed_ him?”

“Allegedly. He also had all those drones. Mysterio made a video right before he died and said Spider-Man’s real name.”

“His…. He was outed on the news.” She nodded. “Okay, that’s… First of all, he didn’t do it.”

“Dad-”

“I don’t care what that video showed. Yeah, he got me arrested, but he didn’t know better. He can’t understand what it’s like to have a family to look out for. He’s all ‘I need to do what’s right’ without thinking anything through. He’s not about to go around killin’ people.”

“He said ‘execute them all’ and then guns went off.”

“... Well, that’s pretty damning.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Kid really doesn’t know how to stay out of trouble.”

“Kid?” Liz sat back up. “So you do really know.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about your date, but-”

“You tried to kill a high schooler, _my friend_ , over Stark’s high-tech weapons.” She didn’t look or sound mad, but Toomes knew she was livid.

“I never wanted to kill him. I’ve seen his stuff. He’s not gonna go down easy. I tried to make sure nothin’ I did was gonna hurt him too bad. I just wanted him out of the way.”

She looked down. “I… I know, but what you did was still very wrong… It’d be a different story if you knew he’d go on to do things like this, but you didn’t. Peter was a good person as far as you knew. As far as any of us did.”

“Come on, do you honestly think Pedro would blow up London? Didn’t you tell me he cried in bi-”

“biology class when we were dissecting frogs, yeah. But if he’s innocent, why isn’t he turning himself in?”

He laughed. “What, you think a vigilante’s gonna be the type of guy to have that much faith in the system? Hell no. I know you’re young, but the world isn’t as… good as you think. It’s got a lot of rough edges. Even he understood that, and look at the guy. Acts like a crime-fighting Care Bear.”

“... I’ll think on it a bit more.” She looked back up at him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just come in here demanding answers. How have things been?”

“I love how, even after comin’ in as many times as you have, you still think my answer to that is gonna be anything but ‘same as always’.”

She smiled. “That’s fair.” A guard started walking over. “Oh, I guess it’s time.”

“I guess so. I’ll see you soon? Bring your mom next time, alright?” She nodded before the guard escorted her away. Toomes frowned. _That k_ _ _ _i_ d had no idea what he was getting into, did he? Almost feel bad for him. _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked this chapter. I wasn't exactly sure how to write him. I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do for the next chapter yet, but it will center around Sam and Bucky. To make us for making you wait longer than normal for this chapter, I'll try and have it out Tuesday morning at the latest. Even so, I refuse to sacrifice speed for a consistent update schedule.
> 
> In other news, who's hyped for phase 4? I haven't seen much about the announcements at Comic Con yet, but I heard that Doctor Strange 2 is gonna be a horror movie apparently and tie directly into WandaVision. I'm not even that big of a horror fan (nor did I like the first Doctor Strange as much as most people did), but the idea of the MCU exploring other genres like that is very interesting and will hopefully shut up those "all superhero movies are the same" people (it's an action subgenre, guys). Also, Hawkeye is getting a show? I love my birdboy and yet I somehow didn't know about that until this morning. Fake fan over here I guess :).


	9. Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a headcanon that explains the whole "we meet old Steve but they explicitly say none of them are literally going to their own past so how the hell did Steve get here?" thing that I was gonna write in but decided against including. It's still canon in my story, so if anyone is curious I'll put it in the comments.

The Avengers Compound had never been a particularly normal place. From multiple super soldiers to a literal God, one would expect non-enhanced human beings such as Sam to feel out of place, tiny compared to their companions. They all got around that either through pure confidence (Tony and Natasha) or embracing their lack of special powers with pride (Clint and Sam).

Nowaday, things were quite different. The Avengers as a whole were different. Only three people could consider themselves full-time Avengers: Falcon (or the new Captain America), Winter Soldier, and Scarlet Witch. In place of the previously much larger team, the three of them had three categories of allies. Category 1 allies, such as Doctor Strange and Black Panther, could be called in whenever needed but everyone agreed they typically had better places to be. Pepper technically fit here, but only in the sense that she had a suit and offered assistance whenever needed. No one wanted to take her away from her daughter at that moment. Category 2 consisted of Nick Fury and his notably small team. They would alert them of threats and mostly just try to order the team around as if they still had any authority. They didn’t, but the Avengers secretly appreciated the heads up.

Category 3 was where things got messy. These were the people that still hung around the compound but no one in their right mind would still call them Avengers. Bruce, despite now enjoying public attention from time to time, mostly stayed inside doing experiments and offering medical assistance when any of them didn’t feel like dealing with professional doctors. Steve, now old after spending years in the past, insisted on staying with his friends and doing what he could to help until he inevitably passed on. They all agreed to let the world believe that time had come alrighty, allowing Steve to spend however long he had left in peace. He mostly gave the remaining Avengers advice as well as someone to talk to. Between missions, all of them mostly sat around alternating between watching old shows and movies. Now that Steve actually had a chance to live through history properly, he graduated from student to frustrated friend that gets upset when his friend doesn’t get his references to popular media, although he was notably much more understanding about it than others.

During Wanda’s visits to the Barton farm, they often opted to sit around talking with the news on in the background, not wanting to leave Wanda out (they already spend enough time worrying about the only girl and by far the youngest one there feeling left out). On one particular afternoon, Bucky stood in the kitchen attempting to make cookies while Sam spread himself out comfortably on the couch and watched the news. 

Sam laughed as Bucky glared at the recipe book. “You should probably stop before you burn the whole place down,” he said.

“It’s not my fault Wanda didn’t make enough cookies.” He went back to mixing the dough. “Why doesn’t this look right?”

“Because you missed a step or something.” Sam got up and walked over. “You know, it’s the twenty-first century now. You can’t expect women to do all the cooking anymore.”

Bucky dropped the spoon frustrated. “Listen, I’ll take over her baking duties the second I can figure this out. And I don’t see you helping.”

“What? I’m not the one craving this stuff all the sudden.” He scooped up some of the dough with his finger and put it in his mouth. “Not bad. Just stick it in and see what happens.”

“Weren’t you just saying I should stop before I start a fire?” He started lumping the dough into small clumps on the cooking tray.

“You never listen to reason anyway.” He glanced back at the oven. “You didn’t even preheat it.”

“What?” Bucky stopped what he was doing and looked over. “I swear I remember doing that.” Sam made direct eye contact as he pressed the start button. “Damn it.”

“Better luck next time.” He walked past his struggling friend as something on the TV caught his eye. “Oh, they’re talking about London again.” He half-jogged over and turned the volume up.

“-controversial news site, the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man’s actions during this fight may not have been as pure as we all assumed.”

“What, did he only save one puppy when he could’ve saved two?” Bucky joked.

“How the hell did he get there when we didn’t find out about this until it was already over?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know. Kid’s got sk-” He cut himself off as Peter appeared on screen.

“Are you sure you would commence the drone attack?” a female voice said. “There will be significant casualties.”

“Do it. Execute them all,”

“The hell…” Sam looked back at Bucky, who looked just as confused as he felt.

“I don’t know much about technology, but people can fake this kind of thing, right?” He abandoned his cookies and walked over.

“They must’ve. There’s no way in hell this kitten-saving mother-”

“What’s going on?” Steve walked in.

“Someone’s trying to convince people Spider-Man’s a war criminal, I guess.” Bucky walked over and sat down in front of the TV. The newly old man sat next to him as Sam leaned over the back of the couch.

“Believe it or not, that isn’t even the most shocking part of this video,” the reporter continued.

“Pigs started flying all over the place,” Bucky said.

Sam laughed. “Yeah, then Thanos came back and gave everyone candy.”

“Mysterio bravely used his final moments to give us all crucial information.”

“Spider-Man’s real name is-” Both of their expressions became serious. “Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.” The kid’s face appeared on.

All of them remained silent until Sam spoke up. “What the fuck just happened?”

“This poor kid…” Steve mumbled.

“They can’t just do this, right?” Bucky stood up.

“Hold on…” Sam pulled out his phone and googled Peter’s name. “Yep. It’s everywhere.”

Steve put his face in his hands. “What did you get into, Queens?”

“Wait, are people actually buying this?” Bucky asked.

“Looks like it. Here, look at this…” Sam’s phone went off. “Hold on. I just got a message.” He checked it. “Pepper said she needs at least one of us to go to her penthouse. She apparently wants more security going down to the… lakehouse? Why is she-?”

“That’s where they’re taking Peter,” Steve cut in. “They want to get him somewhere out of the way and secure. No better place than there.”

“Which one of us is going?” Sam was already looking around for his shoes.  
“Both of you should. This is a really big problem. I don’t want anything happening to that kid. You were both… not there for it, but you should have seen Tony after the snap. He really cared about this kid. I… I know we had our differences, but we.. owe him something, right?”

An alarm went off in the kitchen. The oven was done preheating. Bucky smirked. “You’re an idiot if you think I’m doing this for Stark, but I’ll go with Sam if you finish baking us some cookies for the road.”

Steve smiled. “Deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm doing it. I'm bringing domestic Avengers back and no one can stop me.  
> We only have one more full length chapter left of this story! Exciting. After that, I will have one or two chapters for more reactions people requested but I didn't think deserved it's own chapter (mostly because I currently have no intentions of including those characters in my story much. I will also have a couple of mini reactions that weren't requested but I wanted to do anyway.


	10. James “Rhodey” Rhodes and Thaddeus Ross

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important note at the end.

Rhodey was never the biggest fan of Thaddeus Ross. Even so, he understood the importance of professionalism and for the most part pushed all snarky comments to the back of his mind when meeting with the man. This was especially true after the blip. Rhodey had forgotten all about their last, rather tense conversation where he didn’t do as great of a job of holding his tongue as he normally did. Given the fact that Ross blipped past five years instead of living through them as Rhodey did, the emotions were still fresh on his end.

While it was a little late to punish Rhodey for not following orders, that didn’t mean he was entirely off the hook. In an ideal world, he would have stayed with the new, severely understaffed Avengers to work alongside them as a growing part of him has always wanted to. Instead, he stuck with the government until the tension decreased and he no longer felt like leaving his position would upset Ross too much. Making the man angry was the last thing Rhodey wanted, for both his sake and the sake of his teammates.

_ Just stay cool. _ Those three words acted as a survival mantra in his head during every meeting, including this one. Rhodey just came back from a mission assisting with reconstruction in South America. That was far from his normal duties, but nothing was truly normal in the post-blip world. Plus, the public never got tired of seeing heroes going out and helping civilians rebuild. It gave them the hope and encouragement needed to move forward.

The two of them sat in a small office as Ross ranted endlessly about how damaged the world was even after five long years of work. As much as it makes him feel guilty, a small part of Rhodey was jealous Ross never had to see the world directly after the first snap. Even besides those turned to dust, there were millions of other deaths from plane crashes and botched surgeries. Much of the world became uninhabitable, so no one bothered to fix it until now. He would find it funny that Thanos’s cure for overpopulation ended up making the problem worse if it wasn’t hurting so many people.

“Those ‘elementals’ certainly didn’t help matters,” Ross said, taking a sip of coffee. “At least they’re all gone now.”

“Well, we were told that was the case before London. We don’t know for sure if-”

“Yes, I know. We don’t know anything for sure anymore. I’m just happy they never hit  _ us _ for once.” He took another sip. “Anyway, we still need to talk about-”

Someone knocked on the door. A woman walked in.  _ I think her name was Baker? _ “Excuse me, sir-”

Ross quickly stood up. “I am having a private meeting with Colonel Rhodes here and cannot be interrupted. Do you know what would have happened had you heard confidential information?”

“Ross-” Rhodey cut in.

“I swear, did all the competent people die during the five years I was gone? All these new people they hired-”

“Ross, people are allowed to come in if there is an emergency, I’m sure.” He looked over at Baker. “Are we needed for something?"

She looked flustered but nevertheless continued. “New information about the attack in London has come forward and we all believed you would like to take immediate action. I apologies for coming in as I did, but this is what I would classify as an urgent matter.”

Ross sat again and signaled for her to enter. She sat down. “Next time, wait more than a second after knocking before entering. I was about to give the colonel confidential information and would have needed you to sign a nondisclosure agreement if you heard it. Speaking of confidentiality, is this something Colonel Rhodes shouldn’t be here for?”

“Um, it’s public knowledge, but given the nature of the information, I’m not sure-”

“You heard her. Sit outside for a minute, Rhodes.” He nodded before leaving them to their business. He pulled out his phone and saw many missed calls, most of which were from Pepper. He called her.

“Hello,” someone other than Pepper answered. He vaguely recognized the voice. “Pepper is in the other room, but since she’s been trying to call you forever I thought I should get it.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s May, Peter’s aunt. We met before. Give me a sec.” He heard her moving. “Pepper, it’s Rhodey.” More movement.

“Thank God.” Pepper said into the phone.

“What’s going on? Why is she with you?”

“Have you seen the news? Where are you?”

“I’ve been in a meeting with Ross for the past few hours. I don’t know anything.”

Pepper was silent for a while before mumbling, “Oh, God…”

“‘Oh, God,’ what?” He could barely hear May’s voice in the background. “What’s going on?

“I didn’t even think about him until now.” Pepper sounded worried, which was never a good sign. “I-I was too busy thinking about the public and the police.”

“Stay calm, okay?” Rhodey said. “Deep breaths. Tell me what happened.”

“Mysterio, or someone working for Mysterio, gave doctored footage to the media framing Peter for the drone attack in London.”

His brain started racing, but he did his best to force all thoughts away except for the most important one. “Framed Peter or framed Spider-Man?” The logical part of him knew the answer. Why else would Ms. Parker be there? Still, a large part of him, the part that deeply cared about Tony’s kid, hoped he was wrong.

“Both. He also revealed Spider-Man’s identity.”

Rhodey stared at the meeting room door. “Shit.”

“Do you know if Ross knows yet?”

“He does now.” He stated pacing. “How’s the coverage? The public buying this?”

“Mostly. There are some groups defending him, but almost everyone at least wants a trial.”

“Do we want a trial? What’s the plan? Where’s Peter?”

“He’s hiding. Happy’s going to pick him up. We don’t really have a plan yet. We’re just-”

Rhodey stopped listening as Baker stuck her head out of the door. “Ross would like you to come back.”

He nodded. “Sorry, Pep. I gotta go.” He hung up and went inside. 

Ross looked livid. “You check out the news?”

“You mean about Spider-Man in London?”

“That’s a yes, then? Good. I hope that means I won’t need to tell you what I want you to do.”

Rhodey froze. “You don’t honestly want me to hunt down a kid, do you?”

“Normally, no, mostly because you probably know Stark’s old pet project personally. Still, I think this is a great way for you to prove yourself after what you pulled with the rouges all those years ago. I want him back here or in police custody within a week.”

_ Just stay cool. Just stay cool.  _ “What will happen if I am unable to locate him before then?”

“Well, I would say an enhanced individual resisting arrest after doing vigilante work for years is enough reason for arrest.”

Rhodey nodded before leaving the room.  _ Shit shit shit shit… _ He looked at his phone. He had a new message from Pepper. ‘We’re talking him to the lakehouse. Meet us there?’

He paused before responding ‘be there in two hours. Watch out for government vehicles.’ He started making his way out of the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ  
> I'm sorry for the caps lock, but I want to make sure people don't miss this. I know some people don't read the notes, which is fine, but this one is important. This is the end of what could be considered the main reactions. I have two chapters planned that will include three mini-reactions each. After that, I will start a new story in this series that will cover things after this point. If I get more requests for initial reactions, I will add chapters here.  
> I also want to take this opportunity to say how happy I am with the support I'm getting. This is by far my most successful work. I know most of that is because this is the biggest fandom I've written for, but I hope at least part of it is me getting better at writing. I hope my work continues to improve from this point forward. I love every single comment, Kudos, and hit. Thank you all. Have a great day.


	11. Mini-Reactions pt. 1

1\. Roger Harrington and Julius Dell

Roger and Julius sat in their shared, two bedroom apartment watching the news. “Come on,” Julius said, trying to shove a drink into Roger’s hand. “You need something to chill you out after that disaster.”

“This is the third time one of my school trips almost got the entire class killed.” He stared blankly at the screen. “I’m like Qrow from RWBY.”

“Okay, you need to stop watching the kids’ shows. It’s weird.” Julius put Roger’s drink on the table in front of them before taking a sip of his own.

“How else am I supposed to relate to them?”

“Stop trying to, that’s how.”

Roger shook his head. He grabbed the cup on the table but didn’t drink any of it. “I used to be cool. Did you know I met Bruce Banner?”

“Yeah, he gave you pizza. You’ve told this story a billion times.”

“Well, I guess it’s good to-” The TV caught both of their attentions.

“I come to you with Breaking News regarding the recent attack on London.”

“Okay, this is the opposite of what we need right now.” Julius reached for the remote before Roger stopped him.

“We need to be well informed if we want to be good teachers.” The news broadcast continued, detailing Spider-Man being behind the drones and the death of Mysterio.

“But he saved my class…” Roger said.

Julius shook his head. “Nah, that was just him tryin’ to look good. You can’t take any of this shit these people pull at face value.”

They watched silently until. “Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker.” Julius choked on his drink while Roger dropped his full cup.

“Nope nope nope.” Julius got up. “That’s it. I quit. This teaching job’s a nightmare. Going back to middle schoolers. None of those kids are going on class trips to Europe and I know for a fact that none of them are criminals yet.”

“Is this why he ditched us in DC?” Roger asked. “I liked this kid and now it turns out he’s a liar? I bet he isn’t even allergic to perfume?

“Allergic to perfume?” Julius stopped pacing. “We had a list of everyone’s allergies and he wasn’t on it.

“... Damn it.”

2\. Delmar and Brad Davis

Even though Delmar was the sole owner of his deli, he fully acknowledged the fact that his cat, Murph, was just as important to the company as he was. That was why he let the cat lay on the counter despite it being a possible health code violation. He pet his cat as he stared at the door, waiting for his next customer.

“Today’s a slow day,” he said. “At least I got you, Murph.” He was about to give up on getting any more business when a teenage boy came running in. “Oh, Welcome. What can I get you?”

“My name’s Brad. I wanna ask you a few questions.”

“What?”

“Is it true that Spider-Man has a secret base here?”

“What?” Delmar rolled his eyes. “No, of course not. Why would you think that?”

“I read it online. Apparently he’s saved this place specifically at least two times. Plus, I’ve seen him come here after school.”

“What do you mean… Doesn’t matter. Listen, helping people is just what Spider-Man does. He just happened to be around when I was in trouble a few times. Don’t trust everything you read online.”

“Didn’t you hear? Spider-Man killed a ton of people, including that Mysterio guy. Not a good dude.”

“You hear that from the same place you read about my secret base?”

The kid completely ignored the question “Can I check your attic?”

“Are you a police officer with a warrant?”

“No.”

“Then no. Now leave my deli.”

He looked offended. “Fine, be that way.” He pulled out his phone. “Just look out for dude. Mysterio said he’s Spider-Man and the government’s trying to find him now. The reward for turning him in is insane.” He showed Delmar the picture. It was of his long-time customer, Peter Parker.

“... Are you one of the kid’s classmates trying to pull a prank? He’s a good kid. Doesn’t deserve your crap.” He pointed at the door. “Now get out before I call the cops.”

“Hey! What if I wanted a sandwich? You can’t just-”

Delmar went around the counter and grabbed Brad’s arm. “I can and I will.” He opened the door and shoved the kid outside. As he went to go in, one of the giant televisions visible from his Deli caught his attention. The same picture Brad showed him of Peter was on the monitor. “Holy shit…”

3\. Stephen Strange and Wong

Strange was happy to learn that Wong guarded the New York Sanctum well during his death. Now, they sat together eating Thai. “You’re paying next time,” Strange said.

“You know I can’t-” 

Strange’s phone went off. It was a message from Captain America. ‘Can you see where Peter Parker is?’ He read it outloud for Wong. “He knows we can’t do literally anything he wants us to, right?”

“If I do it, will you buy food again next time.”

“Fine.” Wong walked off while Strange messaged Steve back. ‘Why do you need this information?’ He replied almost immediately with an article on Spider-Man’s identity being revealed.

Wong walked back in. “He’s just at a friend’s place I think. It’s an apartment building near Madison Square Garden. Does he want an exact location?”

“So the boy is safe, then?”

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Before Strange could stop him, he grabbed the phone out of his hands and read the article himself. “That’s not good. What do you want to do?”

“Nothing.” He took the phone back and replied to Steve. ‘He’s safe and not in police custody’ He looked back up at Wong. “The boy is safe. We’ll continue to monitor his well being and intervene if he appears to be in danger. Until then, we do nothing. I doubt he wishes to see me, anyway.”

“... You know Parker doesn’t blame you f-”

“He is safe and has many people looking out for him. He’s far from our main concern right now.” He got up and walked away, leaving his food on the table.

Steve responded. ‘Thank you for your help. I just wanted to confirm his safety, but I know Pepper is looking to take him to the lake house. If you want to help, you can probably meet them there.’ Strange didn’t send a reply, instead rereading the article sent to him.  _ Poor kid. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently doing a rewatch of the entire MCU to nail down my official rankings. (In case you're curious, so far it's best to worst: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk.) I just finished Iron Man 2 and have learned two things. 1. Iron Man 2 isn't nearly as bad as I remember it being. It has a lot of great moments despite having some of the worst scenes in the MCU. 2. Mr. Harrington is in The Incredible Hulk! I saw the pizza scene and I was like 'I recognize that guy', so I looked it up. I am still shook and very glad I started my rewatch before writing this chapter.  
> Speaking of the actual contents of this chapter, I hope you all like it. It was very different and I tried to lean more into humor than I normally do.


	12. Mini-Reactions pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I unexpectedly combined Brad and Delmar last chapter, I ended up only having two reactions for this chapter. It's shorter than normal, but I hope the short wait between updates makes up for that.

  1. Bruce Banner and Thor



Bruce sat on his oversized chair in his lab as he turned on his communicator at three PM sharp. A holographic image of Thor running on what looked like a space treadmill appeared in front of him.

“Good evening, my friend,” Thor said. “I apologize for combining our meeting with my exercise, but I was distracted by a friendly competition with Drax earlier and need to keep schedule.” Quill and him had a bet going for who could look the most fit after being together for a year. The winner would officially be captain forever while the loser would be the winner’s slave for a week. They both worked hard despite knowing the word captain truly meant nothing on that ship.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bruce said. “It’s always good to see you.” Bruce noticed that Thor, despite having a horrific disadvantage at the start, was already looking quite good. Not at his typical level of perfection, but that would take time. “How are the Guardians? Are you still trying to get Nebula and Mantis together?”

“Bruce, you know I would never force that type of bond on anyone. I simply acknowledge how their characteristics would complement one another in a stable, harmonious relationship.”

“Yeah, that’s what-” Bruce cut himself off as Steve walked in. “Woah, what’s up with you, buddy?”

“Have you heard the news about Peter?” Steve sounded defeated.

“I assume you speak of your Peter Parker and not my Peter Quill?” Something Bruce couldn’t see took Thor’s attention. “Ah! Speak of the devil, as the Midguardians would say.”

“Okay, first of all, I am not  _ your _ Peter Quill,” Bruce heard Quill say.

“Not yet, perhaps, but that glorious day will come soon enough.”

“Thor, stop,” Bruce said. “I think this is serious.”

Steve nodded. “Spider-Man has been in the news recently. Edited video shows him ordering drones to attack civilians and it ends with Mysterio revealing his identity.” He hands his phone to Bruce with an article on the new broadcast.

“Am I needed to defend the honor of our Man of Spiders? I am more than willing.”

“Hey!” Quill entered the hologram. “I am not about to turn my ship around for someone that doesn’t even like Footloose.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, anyway,” Steve said. He looked back to Bruce who was staring at the phone screen. “You okay?”

Bruce continued to stare until he mumbled a single name. “Ross...”

  1. Harley Keener



Harley wasn’t quite sure how to react when he heard the news reporter make the bold claim that Spider-Man was a war criminal. At first, he just laughed.  _ No one in their right mind would believe this shit. _ He continued working on his newest project as the broadcast continued. Then he heard someone say the sentence “Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker”, and his attitude took a complete 180. “What the fuck is going on?”

He grabbed his laptop and found the full clip of Mysterio used on the news. Over the next hour, he watched all it the way through about 30 times trying to pinpoint edits and mistakes. He knew he was breaking a fundamental rule of investigation by going into this with his mind already made up, but he didn’t care. He knew for a fact that kid didn’t do anything wrong. He’d known that since Tony Stark accidentally brought him up all those years ago during one of their many phone conversations. Any friend of Tony’s was a friend of his, even if they’d never properly met. The most interaction the two had ever had was at Tony’s funeral, and Harley doubted Peter could remember a single second of that day. Or that week. Who knew, maybe the poor kid was still dissociating and that’s why he’s a killer now.

Harley dismissed the thought almost immediately. It made much more sense that the footage was doctored, but he couldn’t find any sort of mistake. He watched the same video again and again. He knew the truth. He knew that, no matter what, Peter Parker had to be innocent. He was Tony Stark’s successor. Tony was many things, but no one would ever call him gullible. He watched the video again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've made it to the end, my friends. Well, the end of this story, I mean. As I said before, I may add chapters here in the future if I get more requests for reactions, but I will be starting a new story in this series soon. Again, thank you for all the support you've given me and my story. You are all awesome. Have a great day!  
> Update: The first chapter of the next story has been posted!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any characters you wanna see me write a reaction for, I'm open for suggestions.


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